parkrun – Christmas Specials 2025

26 December 2025 - By Steven Alder

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas! We had quite a few of our runners heading for a festive Christmas parkrun this year, with a huge amount appearing in Maldon Prom. Well done to Leo Cole (21:31), Andrew Lager (23:28), Dean Whittaker (23:45), Glen Waller (25:29), James Cooch (25:57), Louis Kitchener (26:29), Ian Lucas (26:37), Dave Holdich (26:46), Anita Grainger (28:05), Sian Tate (28:13), Banksy (29:40), Mick Conroy (29:45), Lisa Leader (32:07), Monty (32:12), Lysia Jiggins (32:23), Angela Read (33:16), Andrew Read (33:17), Ross Silverton (34:14), Nicola Digby (34:41) and Emma Austin (35:26). By the looks of all the photos, it would appear the club really loved being able to wish each other a Merry Christmas and do a run together, especially the day before the BD5 race.

A special shoutout to Monty and Dave Holdich who have now run their first parkruns!

Maldon Prom wasn’t the only location that you could find Witham RC attenidng; we were spread out for our Christmas events at Colchester Castle, Maldon Prom, Chelmsford Central, Great Notley, Harwich, Christchurch Park and Park Błękitny (Poland). Over in Colchester we had Adam Hocken completing the course in 36:19, whilst Harwich was visited by Patrick Hinchliffe doing it in 37:05.

Chelmsford had a few of us, including Andrew Smith (21:07), Kevin Harper (24:26), Clive Smith (28:22), Dominique Harts (30:10), Nichola Beazeley (30:35), Claire Collins (30:35) and Fiona Collins (31:13). In Great Notley, we had festive cheer happening as well, with Giles Sowerby (19:21), Gus Maby (23:01) and Penelope Clarke (34:42).

Steven Alder was visiting family in Ipswich so completed Christchurch Park in 30:08. He probably would have been sub 30 had his leggings not fallen down when running past people. He was happy he had underwear on! He then continued on to Poland to complete another parkrun on Boxing Day, completing Park Błękitny in 29:42 where the Polish citizens were all relieved that these leggings remained on.

The full results can be found on the parkrun website here (25th Dec) and here (26th Dec).

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Saturday 27th December will follow in another post. Don’t forget to add Witham RC to your parkrun profile to be included in these reports – unfortunately, we can’t do it for you.

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parkrun Christmas facts

Over the countries that held a festive parkrun (UK, Ireland, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Poland) there was a total of 800 parkruns. That’s just under half of the locations that could hold the special event.

The very first Christmas parkrun was hosted at Bushy Park in 2004 where 26 runners took part, although it was a Saturday. However, they decided to host it again on Christmas Day in 2005, a Sunday this time, where 50 people ran the route.